31 
O S T 
nfcertained, by accurate obfervation, that it can move 
from place to place, and vary its habits, according to cir- 
cu m fiances. 
Our knowledge refpeflir.g the nature and organization, 
modeof life, nourifltment, and propagation, of thefe fuell- 
fifh, fays Mr. Profefl'or Beckmann, is confined, defective, 
and uncertain. They live in a medium which fcreens 
them from our obfervation ; they are found on coafts 
which few naturalifts frequent, and are fo different from 
all other animals, that, even from the obfervations which 
have been made on them, very little can be concluded. 
Oyfters live on the fhores of the fea, and particularly 
fnch as are Tandy or (tony; on the coafts of iflands, on 
rocks which project into the fea, and on fand-banks; but 
they feem to thrive bell at the mouth of flreams, where 
the water of the latter renders the water of the fea milder. 
The animal-flime which the flreams carry along with them, 
and which is accumulated on the fhores, may ferve them 
as food. 
Oyfters fpawn chiefly in fpring, when the fun again 
begins to warm the water of the lea; and what they then 
throw out confifts of fmall oyfters completely formed, 
which feem to be innumerable. Each of thefe young ones 
expands to a complete oyfter, in the fame manner as the 
feeds or fruits of thofe plants which have hermaphrodite 
bloom. Thofe are millaken who fpeak of male and fe¬ 
male oyfters ; for how could procreation be poflible among 
animals which either do not change their place during 
their whole lives, or can change it only perhaps for an 
inch, and which are capable of no other movement than 
that of opening a little of their fhells ? Oyfters, therefore, 
may be confidered as hermaphrodite. 
The fhells are very often covered with productions of 
the coral kind ; they are frequently loaded alfo with fmall 
mufcles and multitudes of worms. That peculiar kind 
of worm which is called the oyjter-worm, ftiines in the 
dark, in the manner of the glow-worm ; but with an uni- 
verfal light, and not in a peculiar part only. The firft 
obferver of thefe oyfter-worms was M. De Lavoye, who, 
communicating his obfervations to M. Auzouf, gave oc- 
cafion to a very diftinit account of them from this author. 
The firft: thing that prefents itfelf, on the opening of the 
oyfters which contain thefe worms, is only a fort of fhining 
clammy moiflure, which appears like a ftar of a bluifh 
colour, and, being drawn out, w ill extend itfelf to near 
half an inch long, and fhine as much for that whole length 
as in the contracted ftate; it will alfo fhine for fome time 
after it is taken out of the oyfter. On a ftriCfer obferva¬ 
tion, thefe fhining fubftances are found to be real living 
worms; and there are indeed three fpecies of them. One 
fort is whitifh, and has twenty-four or twenty-five feet 
on each fide: there is a black fpeck on one fide the head, 
and the back exadlly refembles that of an eel, when the 
fkin is flripped oft’. The black fpeck in the head is cer¬ 
tainly an eye ; and it is remarkable that the creature has 
but one. The fecond fort of thefe worms is red : this 
aifo has but one eye; its body is made up of feveral rings; 
its nofe is like that of a dog, and it has the fame number 
of feet with the former. The third fort is very different 
from the other two: it is fpeckled, and its head is like 
that of a foal, and has a tuft of hair on each fide. There 
are other worms found alfo in the oyfter, particularly a 
large greyifli one, with two horns, a great head, and feven 
or eight whitifh feet; but thefe do not fhine. This light 
occurs more frequently in large than in fmall oyfters ; 
there are few of thefe large ones that do not yield it in the 
fhells, and in fome it is feen in the oyfters themfelves. 
Journal dcs Sfavans, 1 666. 
A more formidable enemy to oyfters, however, is that 
eel-formed fifh which at Heligoland is called nuguogen, 
or nine-eyes; but which by fome has been called the five¬ 
fingered fifh, or ftar-fifh. It is found fomctimes in oyfter- 
fhells that are quite clofe, and in which no traces can be 
dilcovered of the firft inhabitant. It lies in the Ihell bent 
like a ring, and the fifhers unanimoufiy allert that it eats 
E E A. 
the oyfter. On that account the Englifn fiftiertnen ftrongly 
recommend deftroying it wherever it is found. But, how 
comes this murderer into the oyfter? In all probability 
it creeps in when the animal opens its ihell. Another 
queilion is, how happens it that the ancient ichthyologifts, 
though they mention this fifh, do not obferve that it was 
found in oyfter-ftiells, which at prefent is not uncommon ? 
Oyfters are leaneft when they fpawn, or after that pe¬ 
riod ; and on this account fifhing for them at that time is 
forbidden in England, and other countries where prudent 
regulations prevail. In Spain, this precaution is em¬ 
ployed, becaufe it is imagined that at this period the ufe 
of them as food is injurious to the health. It appears that 
they ought at leall to be three years old in order to ferve 
as food ; and, where care is taken for the prefervation of 
the oyfter-beds, theftfhermen are ordered to fcrape off all 
the fmall ones which adhere to thofe that are full-grown, 
and to throw them back into the fea. An old oyfter has 
often twenty fmall ones attached to it. 
Very fevere winters injure the oyfter-beds and dellroy 
the oyfters, as was every-where proved during that of 
1739-40. Violent florins in the fpring are equally preju¬ 
dicial ; and many beds have been exhaufted by fifhing-up 
too many from them. We are told by Paulus Jovius, 
that he remembered the time when oyfters were brought 
from the coaft of Pefaro to Rome; but that thefe beds 
were afterwards entirely exhaufted, and that people were 
obliged to be futisfied with oyllers brought from Corfica, 
which, before they arrived, were often in a putrid ftate. 
No kind of animal fubftance, indeed, is more liable to cor¬ 
rupt than fliell-fifh, both thofe which are ufed for food 
and thofe which are not. 
It is an undoubted truth, that the nature of the (hell 
and fifh, as well as the goodnefs of thefe animals, are dif¬ 
ferent according to the bottom where they are found ; fo 
that fifhermen can tell by their external appearance, and 
connciffeurs by the tafte, where any kind of oyfter, and in 
general of fhell-fifh, have been found. Where the bottom 
is calcareous, they are tenderer and more friable ; where 
it confifts of rock, they are thicker, more folid, and heavier; 
where it confifts of marl, or a mixture of chalk and clay, 
they are lefs earthy, lofter, and contain more animal glu¬ 
ten. On a (limy bottom they are more oily, and abound 
more with rich animal panicles. The tafte is equally 
liable to change; for inllance, on the eaftern llony fhore 
cf the Adriatic Sea all marine animals are poorer and 
more infipid than thofe on the weftern fide, where the 
bottom is richer. On calcareous rocks the oyfters are 
larger, but have not fo good a tafte as thofe which live in 
flimy bays or creeks. In Norway, thofe are lead elleemed 
which are found on a muddy bottom, becaufe they have 
a muddy tafte: thofe of Denmark, found on a fandy bot¬ 
tom, near Tondern and Fladltrand, are much better. 
The bell are thofe called rock-oyjiers, found on the rocks 
where they are alternately covered and left dry by the 
tide ; though, in England, thofe found at the greateft depth 
in the fea are preferred. The rock-oyfters are larger and 
plumper than others, but their (hells much thinner, and 
many of them fo thin that they are tranfparent. For this 
reafon, a cafk, fuch as thofe ufed at Bergen, will contain 
fcarcely 400, or even 300, fand-oyfters, but is capable of 
containing from 700 to 800 rock-oyfters. 
Oyfters are of different colours in different places. I11 
Spain they are found of a red and ruffet colour; in Illyria 
they are brown, but the fifh is black, and in the Red Sea, of 
the colour of the rainbow. Thofe oyfters which are diftin- 
guifhed by a green colour, and which the Dutch, on that 
account, call groenbaardjes ,are confidered to be fuperior to 
others. But this diftindlion is not natural to them, and 
is produced by art: pits are dug on the fea-fhore, and fur- 
niihed with fmall fluices, through which the fea-water is 
buffered to enter at time of fpring-tide. When the water 
has rifen to a certain height, the oyfters are thrown into 
the pits, where they are left till they acquire the proper 
colour. This ftagnant water, in warm weather, foon be¬ 
comes 
